I made this recipe twice before I decided to share it with you. I thought my first attempt was a fluke because there is no way could I have made bread this good. Second time around, it was proved true. I did it! I made another angelic loaf with a crispy crunchy crust jeweled with oooey gooey raisins and toasty chunks of walnuts to boot. It’s so good that it makes me want to cry. It also makes me want to continue eating it and I might have to unbutton my jeans while I type this. Yes there are crumbs on my keyboard. Shut up!

Ever heard of no knead bread? I am pretty sure you have! It’s been a sensation for the past few years on the internet and all across the country. I made my first no-knead loaf before I started blogging and was kind of obsessed. But then out of nowhere my fixation fizzled and I didn’t make a loaf for two years. I think it might have been that low-carb diet I was on. Ridiculous! Recently I saw Jim Lahey (the master behind the No-Knead method) on the Martha Stewart Show demonstrating a carrot walnut loaf from his new cookbook and my love for no knead bread was rekindled. The plain loaf is great but it always seemed like it needed something. I loved topping the bread with salted butter & jam or using it for sandwiches, but I was never satisfied with eating it on its own. So when my brother bought me his new book, I was stoked to see a bunch of recipes that helped boost the flavor of the bread.

I started with one of my most favorite kind of bread-Walnut Raisin. Good idea, huh? The raisins get super plump and you can taste a subtle hint of cinnamon with each bite. The crust is glorious; something you’d get from a bakery and the crunch is insane. The dough on the inside is soft and moist; a perfect contrast with all the crunchies. I was proud to present this loaf to my family who are serious carbophiles. We crushed that bread and left a trail of crumbs on the cutting board. It’s so easy and that’s where my fear comes in. I might be making this on a weekly basis. I even have timers set on my cellphone for the rises. Dangerous! Anyone have a good elastic pant source you wanna share?

1. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, raisins, walnuts, salt, cinnamon, yeast, and pepper, mixing thoroughly. Add the water and, using a wooden spoon or your hand, mix until you have a wet, sticky dough, about 30 seconds. If it’s not really sticky to the touch, mix in another tablespoon or two of water. Cover the bowl and let sit at room temperature until the surface is dotted with bubbles and the dough is more than doubled in size, 12 to 18 hours.

2. When the first rise is complete, generously dust a work surface with flour. Use a bowl scraper or rubber spatula to scrape the dough out of the bowl in one piece. Using lightly floured hands or a bowl scraper or spatula, lift the edges of the dough in toward the center. Nudge and tuck in the edges of the dough to make it round.

3. Place a tea towel on your work surface and generously dust it with wheat bran, cornmeal, or flour. Gently place the dough on the towel, seam side down. If the dough is tacky, dust the top lightly with wheat bran, cornmeal, or flour. Fold the ends of the tea towel loosely over the dough to cover it and place it in a warm, draft-free spot to rise for 1 to 2 hours. The dough is ready when it is almost doubled. If you gently poke it with your finger, it should hold the impression. If it springs back, let it rise for another 15 minutes.

4. Half an hour before the end of the second rise, preheat the oven to 475 degrees F, with a rack in the lower third, and place the covered 4 1/2 – to 5 1/2 -quart heavy pot in the center of the rack.

5. Using pot holders, carefully remove the preheated pot from the oven and uncover it. Unfold the tea towel and quickly but gently invert the dough into the pot, seam side up. Cover the pot and bake for 30 minutes.

6. Remove the lid and continue baking until bread is a deep chestnut color but not burnt, 15 to 30 minutes more (It took me about 15). Use a heatproof spatula or pot holders to gently lift the bread out of the pot and place it on a rack to cool thoroughly.

I made my first loaf of no-knead bread based on your recipe, but substituted the walnuts with pecans, and used a mix of raisins and currants. Taste-wise, I like it but I didn’t like the gummy, dense inside which may have resulted from my substituting the bread flour with whole wheat bread flour

I know, right? I tried this recipe a few month ago and LOVED it! I ate it with cara cara orange curd and just about died of deliciousness. You are so right about the crust. It’s super crunchy, just as walnut bread should be! I had forgotten all about it. I think it’s time to try making it again!

I made the no knead bread before, (which was AMAZING) but not the walnut/raisin variety…looks DELICIOUS.
I don’t love raisins, but I am rather obsessed with cranberries… if I substituted, then it would be exactly like the bread they serve turkey/brie sandwiches on at the local deli. Mmmmmmmmm.
Can’t wait!

Just reporting back on the bread. It was a HUGE hit! I realised I had no walnuts, so chucked in some ground fennel seeds. Oh, and my dutch oven is only little too, so I made two half loaves. We loved it so much I have more on the side waiting for tomorrow, thanks so much, you’ve seriously rocked our bread world over in London!

How should the recipe change if I wanted to make these into dinner sized rolls? I’m a fan of these at Lahey’s Sullivan St. Bakery. Should I just mold these into rolls and place them on a baking sheet uncovered? Thanks so much.

Well, as someone who just made her first no-knead loaf of whole wheat bread last night (using a different book), I think I maaaaay be slightly obsessed with baking bread. And since I like raisins and nuts in bread, I maaaay be trying this pretty soon.

I had a problem with the first rise and letting it sit over night.
When I checked it in the morning the top of the dough was crusty and dried out!
How did you get yours to stay moist?
Should I cover it with a damp towel next time instead of a dry one?

This happened on one of my batches. There was a slight crust on the edges. I just mixed it in with the rest of the dough and on the second rise, it rehydrated. Maybe next time put a dam towel on top and then wrap the top of that with plastic wrap. Let me know if that changes things!

Thanks for the suggestion, I might try that next time even though I went ahead and mixed in the dried out part on the second rise and baked the bread and it turned out great!
I took it out of the oven an hour ago and can’t keep myself from going back for more, it’ll be gone soon.

I have been craving raisin walnut bread since my aunt brought some home from the bakery where she works. I have made no-knead several times and your blog came up when I did a google search for raisin walnut no-knead. I made this one with 2 c bread flour, 2/3 c rye flour and 1/3 c almond flour. I’m very into the crunchy, hearty breads. This did not disappoint. I think it would be better with a whole grain other than rye – that is a little bitter, but it is still delicious. Thanks for the recipe! I’m checking out the rest of your blog.

OMG, it was super easy and the bread turned out so delicious and it looked just like your picture. I like my raisin bread slightly sweet, so I added 1/2 cup of sugar and doubled the amount of raisins and walnuts.
I put some craisins as well. All the fruits and nuts were evenly distributed.

I make this all the time in the quicker, 4 hour version: use an entire packet of yeast and the first rise only takes 4 hours. For the second rise, it only requires 30 minutes (while your oven preheats). Makes a loaf identical to the overnight rise, in my opinion — just as delicious, just as perfect a crust, but in 1/4 of the time! You can throw together the dough before breakfast and have fresh-baked bread for lunch.

I set my oven to 450, though, but perhaps that’s just because mine runs a bit hot!

Oh my, I think I may have found my new favourite bread! I was a bit worried about the cinnamon in the actual dough as I’ve heard it kills yeast if left too long BUT my dough rose just fine. I used half whole wheat bread flour and half all purpose flour and it came out nice and fluffy. For my “dutch oven” I used my big stock/spaghetti noodle pot with the lid and it worked out brilliant. The crust is super crunchy, the interior is pillowy soft and loaded with texture from the gooey raisins and rich walnuts. I love this toasted with a thin layer of cream cheese and jam. I may add a touch more salt and a few tablespoons of honey to help it be a bit more flavourful by itself next time though. Thank you so much for sharing!

Hi Tracy! Though I follow your blog, I only chanced upon this gem a few days ago. Just knew I had to give it a go immediately! I loved the taste, but I noticed after about 12-13 hours of rising, the dough sort of took on a pinkish purplish tinge. Any idea what that’s about? It looked very exotic, but would be nice to know what happened

Made this delicious bread with some slight changes in timing and ingredients. I had to use a bit more water (2 cups overall) otherwise the dough was too shaggy; I added extra spices (cardamom, allspice, ground ginger, nutmeg and ground cloves), 1/2 cup chopped dried apricots and 1/2 cup of currants.
For a convenient bake time around working … I make the mix one night, put it in the fridge, in the morning I put it out on the kitchen bench, that evening, I do the shape and 2 hour rise … then bake.
Thanks for sharing your beautiful photos! Such an easy bread to change to particular tastes.

I make a no knead loaf every week. I just about lasts the whole week (barely). I have tried several different kinds with different results. I use a clay pot (German style) and it comes out great. I also use parchment paper under the loaf for the second rise. It makes it super easy to transfer to the hot pot. I have used many of the bread recipes in the Grit magazine that came out last summer (and are on their web site). I also found a recipe for white bread that only takes 6 hours for the first rise. I just keep experimenting with pots and recipes. Lots of fun. Thanks for saying that pecans would make a good alternative to walnuts. Fortunatley Jim Lahey is an acquaintence of ours and has signed my “My Bread” book.

[...] turned out fantastic- thanks to Jim Lahey (the no-knead hero!). I started seducing her with the Walnut Raisin No Knead Bread recipe. If you are reading this Lucinda, you'd better make it! It's utterly delicious! [...]

[...] from Jim Lahey’s method that was featured in The New York Times. I made mine based on this recipe on Shutterbean and substituted the bread flour with wholewheat bread flour. I suspect that this is why the inside [...]

[...] from Jim Lahey’s method that was featured in The New York Times. I made mine based on this recipe on Shutterbean and substituted the bread flour with wholewheat bread flour. I suspect that this is why the inside [...]

[...] find anything we were excited about. We then tried a few recipes until we came across this one on Shutterbean (Incidentally, Shutterbean is one of the best recipe sites we’ve come across on the [...]